Here is a link to a remarkable video that was posted by a Guardian reporter back in February 2009. It was shot at a Marine Combat Outpost in Kunar Province -- a remote and tiny installation that probably no longer exists since the US shut down many such COPs in the wake of disastrous attacks on Wanat and Keating in a shift in battle strategy last fall. The video is of an unusual quality and intensity.

Meanwhile, if the battle has shifted in any way, the strategy remains the same. The theory is, as the reporter explained in 2009, the Marines "will win over the locals while disrupting the Taliban's movements." Sound familiar?

Einstein is said to have defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Welcome to the insanity of American wars for hearts and minds in the umma.